As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m still focusing on elements of the Revolutionary War effort of attaining independence and the related contributions and connections of families of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers.
This one makes my heart smile.
Several years ago, when I was working on the early history of Mt. Harmony Baptist Church, I kept coming across references to two titles that I couldn’t get my hands on. Despite checking every library, historical society, and genealogical collection I could think of, physical copies simply could not be found. No one knew what I was talking about. But I kept googling the guy associated with the titles: Luther Ray Johnson, whose name might seem familiar to you if you’ve read many of my articles.
You see, Luther grew up in the heart of the Fork and attended Mt. Harmony in the late 1800s. Long story very much shortened, I eventually connected with Luther’s grandson, Dr. Dana Johnson, who told me that what I was looking for were his grandfather’s memoirs. The two 300-page volumes were on a shelf behind him in Kansas. They had never been published publicly. And he offered to send them to me.
Keep in mind that this man didn’t know me from Adam’s house cat, but he entrusted those treasures to me for some reason. And they were chock full of anecdotes about people of the Fork. Dana, who was in his 90s, became my long-distance buddy. I sent him homemade apple butter and other items, and we communicated for years before his death in 2020. He, too, had taught art and was very much interested in the history of his family and this area, where he had brought his father to revisit in the 1940s. In fact, Dana had written a book based on his own research and his father’s memories, Johnson: An Intimate Biography of an American Family, which is now available at the McClung Collection of the Knox County Library in the East Tennessee History Center. Needless to say, I was nervous about having his grandfather’s precious memoirs in my possession, but he gave permission for one of them to be microfilmed by the McClung, and I returned the two volumes to him as soon as possible.
The Johnson home on Huckleberry Springs Road, as sketched by Dr. Dana Johnson and included in his book
As I scurried around the other day to find my next Revolutionary War connection to write about, I remembered Dana’s book. Sure enough, his ancestor, Rev. William Johnson, had been a Baptist minister at Rocks Church near Suanee Creek in Appomattox County, Virginia, and as a Patriot, William had provided 396 pounds of beef to the Continental Army. Williams’ son Robert served two three-month tours as a private with the Continental Army in 1780 and 1781, which included the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
After the war, Rev. William Johnson and some members of his family journeyed from Virginia down to East Tennessee, finally arriving here in 1792, but established and preached at Baptist churches along the way. In 1802, Rev. William Johnson served as the first moderator of the newly formed Tennessee Association, a consortium of 19 Baptist Churches that met at Beaver Creek. Some of his sons and other descendants also served in the ministry, and his grandson William David Johnson married Nancy Childress, lived at Stock Creek, and was a preacher and deacon at Mount Olive in South Knox County. Their son Rufus Perry Johnson (1832-1915), a Civil War veteran, moved his family to East Knox County, eventually residing at Huckleberry Springs in the Fork from 1874 to 1881. Rufus’ son William Douglas Johnson (1858-1928) was a deacon at Mt. Harmony Baptist Church, and William Douglas’ son Luther Ray Johnson (1880-1960) grew up in the Fork, attended Carson-Newman, became a preacher, eventually moved west, and is the one who wrote his memoirs, ensuring that so many precious stories of this area not be forgotten in the Fork.
Jan Loveday Dickens is an educator, historian, and author of Forgotten in the Fork, a book about the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers, obtainable by emailing ForgottenInTheFork@gmail.com.
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